Japan’s World Cup 2022 bid proposes holographic TV broadcasts

As you may or may not know, countries have to bid to host the World Cup and the Olympics. The criteria includes a long list of factors, but any given country has to show what they can offer to make the event both memorable and as good as, if not better than the last one.

With Japan’s bid to host the World Cup in 2022, they are certainly offering something very new and different. Rather than just promising a fantastic tournament in Japan, they are also offering to show each match as holographic broadcasts in all 208 FIFA member nations.

What this means is, instead of turning on your TV to watch a match, you could instead travel to your local stadium in your home country and watch it played out as a holograph. Not only that, but something called viewpoint vision would be available allowing you to fly around the pitch and watch from any angle. We assume a laptop would be required for this.

If Japan succeed in their bid, the World Cup 2022 would certainly be different, and the first to actually see matches played outside of the host country, albeit holographically.

Japan might be a tech leader, but I think they are aiming too high with this proposal. What they are suggesting is that in 12 years time we will be capable of projecting a holographic image the size of a soccer pitch into a stadium and have it look as though the players are actually there–all happening in real-time.

12 years is a long time in the tech world, but does anyone else have doubts that’s going to be possible? Think about the cameras required, the power use, and the infrastructure needed to beam this in real-time from Japan around the world.

I hope Japan do win the bid just so we can see them attempt to make this holographic match system work. If they pull it off it’s going to be a fantastic World Cup where everyone can enjoy the tournament as if it’s being hosted in their own country.